Macoupin County, Illinois - Chapter 21: Jersey Street., 1911 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 21: Jersey Street.

In 1909, early in the spring, there began to appear in the Medora Messenger, a series of reminiscent articles from the facile pen of Lyman Palmer, that at once attracted the interested notice of the local readers of that excellent sheet and its exchanges throughout the county. Being a man of large mental calibre, broad experience and superior journalistic training, coupled to a retentive and reliable memory, these pen pictures of Mr. Palmer lent such a charm to his narratives and so clear an atmosphere of historic truth as to make for each article a value and importance all its own. Eventually, they came under the notice of the present historian and at a glance their value to the work in hand by him was apparent and quickly recognized. Hence, a condensation of Lyman Palmer's recollections of the early history and peoples of Chesterfield township and vicinity is here produced, with only one regret - that the manuscript could not have been published in full in these pages.

A word or two as to Lyman Palmer : He tells us he was the firstborn of Luther Bateman Palmer and Louisa A. Brainard, daughter of Samuel D. Brainard, and that his parents were married in 1847 by Rev. Elihu Palmer, brother of General John M. Palmer, but of no immediate relation to Luther. That he grew to manhood in the vicinity of Medora and "stuck type" on the Carlinville Democrat. Moved to California, where he taught school and was connected with San Francisco papers. Returned to Macoupin county, then took up his residence in Chicago and, in 1911, finally settled in Florida.

Foreword

This series of sketches is not intended to be history in any true sense of the word but simply personal reminiscences of days long since gone by and of people most of whom have "joined that innumerable throng" in "that bourne whence no traveler hath yet returned." It is true that much which is of histor- ical nature and interest will, perforce, creep into these sketches, and because of that fact it is hoped that possibly they may prove of sufficient value to be preserved by many in scrap bock form at least.

The places which knew our pioneer ancestry can know them no more forever, and it is also true that the people who knew them are becoming fewer and fewer in number, and very soon "taps" will sound for the last one, hence it behooves some one who stands as a bridge, as it were, between the pioneers of "lang syne" and the whirling mazes of the living present, to gather together the threads of romance and tragedy, the prose and poetry of those early days and denizens, and weave it all into a tapestry of beautiful design.

As far as I am able, that is what I hope to do in these sketches. On the stage of life, as on the mimic stage, there is always the hero that I shall call forth to play the parts in the life dramas which I shall depict. It is true that some clouds flitted across the social skies in those days just as they do now. Some failed of reaching the high mark of perfect living in the '505 just as they are now doing in the early days of the new century. But of none of these shall I speak. The mantle of charity shall be drawn over it all and truly "the dead past shall bury its dead." "With malice toward none and charity for all" is this work, which is really a labor of love, begun, and so it will be prosecuted to the end.

It is more than probable that inaccuracies will creep into these sketches as I am writing entirely from memory, and am not so situated that I can even refer to an old timer either for the purpose of refreshing my memory or verifying my statements. Therefore I trust that the readers of the Messenger will be charitable towards me for it is truly "a far cry" from the days of which I am to write, some fifty years ago, to the present time. My life has been divided into three eras, each superimposed upon the other like great geological stratas. They are ( i ) . The years of which I am to write coming up to my departure for California in 1873. (2). My life in California extending to 1890. (3). My iife in Chicago to the present. Hence it is that I am compelled to look far down the vista of time and view the things of which I am to write across the ever widening chasm of years which lie between the then and the now.

It may seem at times that I am showing a little partiality in that I shall write more fully or make more frequent mention of some than of others. I want to. say at the outset that I shall endeavor to treat all with perfect fairness, and if I mention some more frequently than others or give more full sketches of some than others it will simply be because of my closer personal relations with the one so mentioned.

I have one request to make and that is, should I make any misstatements I trust that some one, in a spirit of good fellowship and love, and for the sake of truth, may correct the same by a short letter to the editor. I do not want any errors to go down into time unchallenged and uncorrected, and now is as good an opportunity as we will all have to get things right once for all.

In The Beginning

As the veil of years is drawn down closer and ever closer the past becomes more and yet more dim and misty until the commonplace events are lost to view entirely, and the greater ones are wrapped about with a haze of mystery and romance. As vessels which meet in mid-ocean and then drift farther and farther apart until, at the close of day, the sheen of the crimson light of the setting sun gilds into a blaze of glory only the top gallants of the stately masts, so it is with the events and the people of whom I am to write. They have drifted on and still further on and out upon the limitless sea of the past till now only a halo of loving remembrance enwraps them.

If this were real history I would search the records, look into the archives, and consult with the oldest residents now living and thus be able to give a detailed list of the names of the pioneer settlers of Palmer's Prairie, Rhoads' Point and Delaware and also the exact date of their arrival, whence they came, etc. Should these sketches stir to action some one who is in a position to do this "history act" for the Messenger in proper manner then will they not have been written in vain.

Early Settlers

That whole section of country from Piasa to Rockbridge, and from Kemper to the Blackburn bridge was as fully settled as far back as I can remember as it is today, or nearly so. Some of the old homes and homesteads have disappeared but those which are of more recent date will not much more than offset

I shall mention some who were gone even before my time. I do not know who the first settler in that section was, but among the very earliest pioneers may be named the Rhoads, Easthams, Loves, Chiltons, Carsons, Chisms, Fitzjarrels, Twitchels and Palmers. My own immediate ancestry comprising my grandfather, Daniel Palmer, and a large family of sons and daughters, arrived at Delaware in October, 1843. They came overland from Knox county, Ohio, and were originally from Vermont. They had been preceded by my grandfather's brothers, William and Elias, and their families.

,1 am just in receipt of a letter from my father, Luther B. Palmer, in which he says: "I will give you Jersey street as it was in 1842. (By "Jersey street" he means that section of the country lying between Rockbridge on the north and Piasa creek on the south and along the road through that section.) I will commence at Rockbridge. A man by the name of Barnett owned the mill then. The rock bridge was there, from which the place took its name. William Palmer had built it and it was a good bridge. The first house as you went south was that of Daniel Fitzgerald, the Baptist preacher. The next was Henry Saunder's, then Benjamin Saunder's and then the widow Twitchell. Then Elias Palmer and next came Leonard Brown, and then William Palmer. Next came the home-made schoolhouse, built of logs with puncheon floor and seats.

"I now come to the town of Delaware, the present site of Kemper. First was a log house, then came the frame house which a man by the name of Smith had put up, but just then the Mormons came along and he joined them and never finished his house. Next came Elfrith Johnson. Then there were improvements and a house which they called the Swallow place and then came the Cov- entry place. Over on the west side of the road were the homes of William Tompkins, E. Barnes and the Goacher place. Then following along up the edge of the brush there were the homes of James Rhoads, Benjamin Cleaver, who was then justice of the peace, and Josiah Rhoads. That was all there was of that immediate settlement.

"Going on farther south through the brush we come to Elder Mound, a very fine tract of land upon which the town of Fidelity was afterwards located. John Sullivan was the first settler and he was a blacksmith. South of that was the Simmons prairie, which was a fine belt of land. The Rhine people were living somewhere on west of the road, and Samuel Rich was living up near Fidelity."

I will add to the above a note stating that Orville Hayward spent a summer some twenty-five years ago up in the foothills of California back of Stockton, and while there met John Sullivan, who then had a fine stock ranch up there in the mountains. He told Orville all about the old days at Fidelity and how he used to have to get up before daylight to sharpen the plows for the settlers in Palmer's prairie. According to his story they were a hustling lot in those early pioneer days.

A Bird'S Eye View

In these sketches I shall write from the view point of my old home, lately the residence of Gilbert Palmer, some two miles north of Medora. The time of this bird's eye view of the neighborhood is 1860.

Beginning at the southeast corner of the neighborhood some mile and a half southeast of Summerville, there stood in those days the home of James Carson. Farther east toward Cook's creek, somewhere in the woods, lived the Cooks and Burns, though just where I am unable to say as I was never at the home of either. To the northward was the home of Harvey Carson, and still farther north the home of Thomas Carson. Turning eastward in the road running east from Summerville we come first to the home of William Searles, and somewhere beyond him down in the woods lived a German by the name of William Bramenkamp. North of William Searles lived Allen Searles, and probably the Parker family, at least Silas Parker always came to school with the Searles boys. Then right in there somewhere lived "Raash" Burns and family and also families by the name of Howorton, Swafford and Hudspeth. Just where any of them lived I never knew.

Then still farther north was the old Dr. Blackburn place, and away on to the northward was the old Cove Spring, about which in those early days before I can remember, there must have been quite a settlement, as the present Presbyterian church at Summerville had its initiative among the people in that vicinity. Possibly its official name is yet the Spring Cove Presbyterian church. It was in my day.

Coming westward, and back south on the road from Piasa to Summerville, away down in the ravine about midway between the two towns was the cabin occupied by the Overton brothers. Then north of them and some west of the road was the home of Benjamin Rhoads. Then still farther north and about at the point where the present road east from Medora intersects that road, lived a brother-in-law of William Rhoads. but the name is just a mist to me. Pos- sibly it was Caywood, as a young woman by that name once attended school and came from out that way. Just north of that on a little hill on the west side of the road lived Elder Jacob Rhoads, and still farther north of him was the home of William Rhoads, and eastward on the road to James Carson's was the home of Edward Brewer.

Then on farther north came the village of Summerville. Its first house was erected on the site of the present residence of Silas Parker (the southwest corner) by Lester Hoisington. Approaching the village from the south as far back as I can remember one came first, on the west side of the road, to the home of George Loper, and then, on the corner above referred to, was the home of Mr. Kenworthy. On the east side of the road were the homes of John Simpson, Stroud Keller, "Boss" Wheat, his blacksmith shop, the residence of John F. Roach, and lately the store. There might have been another house near Keller's but I do not seem to be able to locate it or to recall any one who ever lived in it.

Turning eastward, the first house on the south side of the street was Gideon Carson's, then came Enoch Keele's place, then the home of David Hartwell, and then the Presbyterian church. Across the street north of the store was the home and hall of Edward Corey, then east of him was the place now occupied by Martin Haynes. I do not know who lived in it in the olden days, but Leonard Trabue occupied it during the war. East of that there was nothing but Searles' cornfield in those days. At that time there was a road leading north just east of the Trabue place which led to Blackburn bridge. Taking that road north from Summerville one came first to the home of John Haynes, and just to the west of that, and back in the field was the home of Elias Haynes. Going on eastward one came next to the home of "Pit" Burns, and farther on to the right out toward the Searles place lived Lewis Haynes. To the north of this road and some distance back were two or three houses but I cannot recall who lived in them. Later on one of them was known as the Chris Morris place and possibly Philip Odell, the Gleasons, and the Wiltons lived in the other later on.

Coming back to the store in Summerville again and starting west we come at once, on the northwest corner, to a store building erected by John Farrow, and next to it westerly was his residence, later known as the Joseph Haynes place. Then next came the Albert Eastham place, and then, on the south side of the road, the Baptist church and schoolhouse. Crossing the branch and the road we come to the home of Lewis Love. On the south side of the road and some farther west lived a man way back there by the name of Runion Willet.

Going back to the Baptist church and taking the road northward toward Harmony schoolhouse the first place we come to is the old Albert Eastham farm house. At the time of my earliest recollection Thomas Derr lived there and later on Andrew Farrow and James Eggleson. The Easthams had a shingle mill there.

Passing on farther north there stood a house back from the road a quarter of a mile east, in which lived William Lee, and a little later, John Derr. Across the road and a little farther to the north lived George Palmer on the site of his present farm house. Going still farther north, and on the west side of the road was a house probably built by Thomas Derr and occupied by him long before my day. As far back as I can remember the Shadrach brothers lived there. Across the road and to the east stood a carpenter shop and George Garret was in charge of it when I was 'a wee lad going to my first school. Down a little lane some distance east was the home of Cyrus Hayward. A short distance north of the carpenter shop was the home of Ansel Hayward, and still a little farther north was the old Harmony schoolhouse. North of that, as now the road ended in an east and west road, and some distance north of that junction, out in the field, long before my day, was the home of the Thurstons.

Taking the road eastward, back in the field on the north side, was the home of James Hartwell. Farther east and on the south side of the road, lived Robert Carter, Sr. Farther east, and at the bend in the road, where Horace Warner now resides, lived George Jenks, and still on north of that was the home of Charles Goodsell. Thence the road ran on down through the bottom, much as the railroad does now to Loper's ford. On the top of a ridge there was a house, but George Newberry is the only occupant of it that I recall. East of Jenks' and on the top of the mound was the Challacombe homestead.

Passing again westward to the road leading from Brighton to Rockbridge, and beginning a couple of miles south of Rhoads Point, we come to the home 6f Charles Wales and sons, William and Edward. Thence going north, back in the field to the east, was the residence of John L. Rhoads. Across the road and farther north at the corner of the Fidelity road lived William Bowker. Proceeding northward, on the west side of the road was the home of Thomas Rice, and west of that, back in the fields, was the home of the Artmans. Across the road from Rice's and farther north on the top of the hill there was a log house but I have no remembrance of any one living in it. Across the road and just north Thomas Payne had built a house I think as early as 1860, at least it was there during the war. As far back as I can remember there was a little cabin in among the trees right about where the former school building stood, which was occupied by a family by the name of Bell. Farther to the northwest stood another log house occupied by George Blackburn and family. North of that some distance, and a little nearer the road, stood another log cabin. It was not straight with the compass, and I can see it now basking in the sun, but I am unable to link up any family in connection with it. I know some one lived there for I can see the children playing about the yard as I think of it. Close by this, on the west side of the road and just to the north stood "Old Tobe's" "department store." Then farther north and on the west side of the road stood the original Mt. Pleasant Baptist church. Next to that on the north was the home of the Perrys. Adjacent to it and a part of the building was a harness shop, and just north of that was a wagonmaker's and a blacksmith shop combined in one long building, and as I remember, both conducted by the Perrys, though about 1860 a man by the name of Coonrod came to the "Point" and did wagon making. Still farther north and across the little branch was the old house of "Doc" (Franklin B.) Simpson, and across the road to the east, and across the present railroad right of way stood a small house occupied by the Calverd family. Farther north on the west side of the road and back in the field was the home of George Eastham, and way down in the woods to the west of that was a little cabin occupied by Dr. Nathaniel Jayne.

Then came the "Cross Roads," a very prominent land mark in those days, and half a mile west, on the load leading to Hawkins prairie, was the home of Elder Hezekiah Chilton. To the north of him and across the road lived Elder Albert Farrow. Coming back to the cross roads and proceeding northward, on the west side of the road, was the home of John Chism, Sr. Across the road, and away back in the field east, long before my day, "Grandpa" Eastham had a home. It was probably one of the oldest settled places in that whole section. Still farther north and on the east side of the road stood a little cabin in which Daniel Palmer had his first home, and where Solomon Palmer lived in 1859. Half a mile west of that and way back in the field stood the one time home of "Ed" Rhoads. Coming back to the main road and going on across the "big" bridge, up on the hill to the east of the road, was the home of Luther B. Palmer, the house in which the writer was born.

Remembrances Of First Comers

In those early days came people from sunny southland, - the Easthams, the Rices, the Loves, Chiltons, and others. Also people from the rock-ribbed New England coast, the Haywards, Hartwells, Palmers, and others. Among those who arrived in the neighborhood were the Hartwells, Davids and James. As far back as I can remember, David Hartwell lived on the south side of the street in Summerville, just east of Keele's place. As I recall, David Hartwell was a sturdy Puritan, a man with ways and ideas of his own, and with a strong determination to live out his life in his own way. I do not recall Mrs. Hartwell at all. The eldest daughter, Harriet, married "Alf" Ketchum, way back in the early '505. There was a boy, a splendid fellow, Samuel, and a younger girl, Maria.

James Hartwell and family settled on the tract of land northeast of Harmony schoolhouse. He died before the war. I recall that he was held in the very highest esteem by his neighbors and considered as the very soul of honor. About this time also died Anson Hayward. The widow of James Hartwell married Lewis Loomis, father of Medora's druggist, Thad A. Loomis. Her eldest boy was Arthur, who enlisted with many other young men of the neighborhood, in Company F, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry and served throughout the Civil war. After the war he married Mary Challacombe and settled down on the old homestead. He had a brother, Justin, and three sisters, Mary, Corinna and Rosa.

Joseph and John Haynes, brothers, emigrated to this locality from Pennsylvania, and about the breaking out of the war, Joseph moved into Summerville from his farm, which was afterward occupied by Elias Haynes, and was just north of Summerville. Joseph bought the John Farrow place, on the site of the present Haynes homestead. His wife, Elizabeth Haynes, died in March, 1868. Elias, the eldest son, married a sister of Peter Muntz, a man who was well known in the community after the war. After the war, Elias and Jake Shoemake conducted a blacksmith shop on the north side of the street between the Corey house and where Martin Haynes now lives.

About 1870 the family moved to Minnesota and that was the last I ever saw of any of them. There were five other sons of Joseph Haynes: Lewis; Martin, who married Phoebe Loper; Moses, who was a member of the Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, Company F; Aaron and John. There were two girls, Sarah and Barbara. Sarah married Haines Rhoads, from over Waggoner's Prairie way Barbara became the wife of Albert Young and took up her home in Medora.

John Haynes and family always lived about a half mile east of Elias' place, on the road from Summerville to Blackburn bridge. John was a typical pioneer, a giant in stature. Abner, one of the boys, enlisted in Company F, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry. Some time after the war, he married Louisa Coonrod, who lost her life in a cyclone that visited the neighborhood some time afterward. The other boy's name was Michael. Mary and Nancy were the daughters of the household. Mary married William Chism.

I stated in a recent article that I was under the impression that John Farrow was interested with John Rhoads in the store which was in the old Sons of Temperance hall building in Summerville. I am not sure of my ground in that statement but I do know that later on he erected a building on the corner diagonally across from the Sons of Temperance building and that he conducted a store in it for some time. I do not know in what year he and his family left Summerville but it was some time before the war. When I was a bit of a lad there was a Dr. Bunn who had his office in the Farrow residence, which, by the way, was located on the present site of the Haynes property.

Lived In A Beautiful Hickory Grove

Across the road to the north of Eldred Chilton's, west of the cross roads and back in the heart of a most beautiful hickory grove, lived Elder Albert Farrow. I remember him very distinctly. He was spare built and active, and as a preacher he. had but few equals in that section of the country. There was one peculiarity about him that I never met with in any other man. He would begin his talk in measured tones and deliberate enunciation, but as he got into his subject his tongue would fly faster and faster and the pitch of his voice would keep the ascendent until in rapid and evermore rapid spirals he would reach the climax, when, just as one would expect a triumphant shout of exultation and victory won, he would, in a word, drop his voice to "double bass G" and enunciate the climax. The effect of this sort of vocal gymnastics was startling at times, for this was done over and over in the course of a long sermon. But he was both a good man and a good preacher and so he left a lasting impress upon the community.

Galloway And Andrew Farrow

Galloway Farrow lived farther west, possibly in Hawkins prairie. I do not know where Andrew Farrow lived most of the time but at one time the family lived at the old Eastham place, just north of Summerville. I cannot remember much back of the time that "Dutch" (Leonard) and "Dutch" (Fred) Trabue did not work for my father on the farm. Fred was a big, jovial, typical Ger- man, whom we all liked the best in the world. Leonard remained with us for several years, off and on, and finally married a Miss Swafford. They were living where Martin Haynes now lives during the war, and at the time the Crowder store was robbed. West of the Love place and on the south side of the road lived Runion Willet. ,

The Derrs

Among the earliest pioneer families to settle on the east side of the prairie and on the road north from Summerville, was that of Thomas Derr. He had settled on the place across the road west from the Cyrus Hayward farm, while his son John was yet a young man. When I knew the' family they were residing at the old Eastham farm north of Summerville. Mrs. Derr was a very kindly woman and the mother of a large family of children. The oldest son was John, to whom I became greatly attached as a teacher. He married Susan, daughter of Albert Eastham, and lived in the field east of George Palmer's old home when I knew them. There were two other boys, William and Horace. The five daughters answered to the names of Jane, Irene, Nellie, Alice and Dora. Jane married Wilson Silsby.

The Haywards

I do not know that it is so but I have always been under the impression that the Hartwell and Hayward families came from the same section of the east and were probably friends and neighbors there. At any rate, the Haywards were of the same sturdy, thrifty, New England stock. The family, as I recall far back into the '$os, comprised "Grandpa" Hayward and his four sons, Cyrus, Ansel, Daniel and William. The next place north of George Palmer's old home farm and down a "little lane to the east, was the home of Cyrus Hayward, from the days of my earliest recollection. He was one of the men whom my father held in highest esteem, for he was something of a radical himself, hence, it was, that in early life I came to hold the man in high regard also. In those early days the Jacksonian movement at Danville, New York, then simply called the "water cure," but later on classified among the remedial methods of the age as hydropathy, was just coming into prominence. Cyrus Hayward was perhaps the first one in the community to fall in with the teaching and began to practice its methods. Some people laughed at him, but that did not deter him one moment, nor shake his faith in it. "Packs" for colds and "packs" for fevers, and "compresses" for ills and ailments without number and no pork eating, and "graham flour" and "brown bread" and all the other "fads" as the neighbors called them, which were in vogue in the "home on the hillside" at Danville were indulged in. But nothing moved the iron will of this convert and time has proved that he was right and the things that were then called "fads" have long since become the fashion. There is now scarcely a home in the land where graham bread is not a favorite diet and eaten because of its health giving qualities. And so this pioneer Jacksonian has been vindicated. His first wife died before the war, and later he married Mrs. Johnson, who lived near Carrollton, related to the Perry family, living at Rhoads' Point before the war. She had a boy named Charlie. Cyrus Hayward had six children by his first marriage - Cyrus, Jr., William, Caroline,

Jane, Lucinda and Josephine. Lucinda became the wife of Leonard Ketchum and Josephine married Emmons Loper. Cyrus served through the Civil war in Company F, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, and after his return home married Mary Odell. William married Almeda Waggoner. On an eighty acre tract north of Cyrus Hayward's place, lived his brother Ansel. His wife was a sister of Frank Silsby. They both died early in life. Their four children were Rotheus, Morillus. Orville and Frank. Rotheus enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Infantry at Alton and soon thereafter died from measles. Morillus married a Miss Robinson near Carlinville.

One Of Nature'S Noblemen

The present farm home of James Chism was called the "Caleb" Handlin place in the old days, but as far back as I can remember Daniel Hayward and family occupied it. He was one of nature's noblemen, and his wife, a sister of Caleb Handlin, was one of the finest women that ever graced that section of the country.

Ella Handlin married Professor Thomas Moore, of Blackburn College. At or about the close of the Civil war, Daniel Hayward sold his place and moved to a farm some distance east of Chesterfield, now the home of Ira Ketchum. Later, in the early '703, Daniel Hayward went out to Sioux Falls and amassed quite a fortune.

Ideal Young Man Of The Neighborhood

The old Hayward homestead was situated way back in the field to the northwest of where Daniel lived. William was the youngest son and remaining with the old folks, finally came into possession of the homestead. He married Lodusta Loper, a daughter of "Ad" Loper. William was considered the one ideal young man of the whole neighborhood, his only competitor in the estimation of the neighbors being Frank Silsby. William finally disposed of his farm and went to Minneapolis.

Near the Harmony schoolhouse lived a family by the name of Thurston. If I am right in my recollection, Mrs. Thurston was a sister of the Hay wards. There were three girls of the Thurston family - Amanda, Irene and Ella, and one boy, William. Amanda became the wife of Samuel Garrett. Irene married Daniel Ketchum.

An Englishman Of A Sturdy Type

Robert Carter lived east of the Harmony schoolhouse, half a mile. He was an Englishman of that sturdy type, with which almost the whole of the Chesterfield neighborhood was filled in those pioneer days. They made the best of farmers, were most honorable and industrious citizens and most obliging and accommodating neighbors. Mrs. Carter well deserved the cognomen she bore for many years - "Aunty." Their oldest boy was John. He died but recently. John married Miss Rhoda Kelsey, whose family lived near Miles Station. There were three other boys, - Joe, Robert, Jr., and William.

The Shattuck Boys

When I used to go to school at Harmony, there were two brothers living across the road just west of Cyrus Hayward's place by the name of Shattuck. They were carpenters. And back there before the war there lived where Horace Warner now has his home, a man by the name of George Jenks. He married a Mrs. Davidson, who had a son, George, who, like his mother, was large of frame and a fellow of iron nerve. He enlisted in Company F, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry. He chanced to be home on furlough at the time that Henderson, the bushwhacker, was captured. Henderson lay wounded upstairs and it was a serious question as to who would take his life in his hands and ascend those stairs and face the wounded desperado. But the delay was only for a moment, when John stepped to the front and said, "I will go first."

Charles Goodsell

The next place to the north of George Jenks on the west side of the road and where John Carter made his home for several years, lived Charles Goodsell, as far back as I can remember. He had two sons, George and Wallace. Before the war the family moved to Minnesota.

The Challacombes

Nicholas Challacombe and Nancy G. Carson, eldest daughter of Harvey Carson, were married before I was born, and they have lived on the "Mound" time out of mind so far as I am concerned. He was a sturdy Englishman and came into the neighborhood some time in the '405. The oldest daughter was Belle. There was a little coterie of we youngsters who formed a social club, as it were. There were in it Belle Challacombe, Maggie Carson, Sena Carson, Etta Cross, the teacher at Summerville who boarded at Harvey Carson's, Dora Challacombe, Addie Carr, Allen Eastham, John Carson, John Butler, myself and others whose names I cannot recall. Belle married Horace Warner. Another daughter, Mary, married Arthur Hartwell. Dora married John Butler. The other children were William, Fannie and Nicholas ("Nickie.") The latter married my kinswoman, Annie Dannells.

The Eastham Family

Away back yonder long before I was born, the Eastham family moved into the neighborhood, and Lawson Eastham built a house a half mile east of the Chism home and planted two poplar trees, which later became landmarks. "Grandpa" Eastham was a man of slight stature and always wore an old fashioned "stovepipe" hat of the style of that day. He died, I think, about the breaking out of the war. In those early days there drifted into the community from Virginia a number of families who were destined to form a very essential element in its future history. These families were the Easthams, Loves, Chiltons, Rices, Farrows and others not now remembered. Albert Eastham was a son of Law- son, and was as true a man as ever lived. He was called " 'Squire." His first home, now owned by the Goodwin family, was north of Summerville, 'Squire Eastham was considered a model man by all. So far as I know, he was the pioneer threshing machine man of the community. A way back yonder when there were only two kinds of machines in the country, the "Alton" and the "Whitehall," he was the operator and owner of a little Whitehall. They used to set it flat on the ground and really it would look more like a toy than a real machine, in these days of steamers. They used to place a horse power lever through the cross sills in front and all the men on the job would climb on to it and "kick up" the rear end, and thus enable them to run out the back wheel, after which it was allowed to settle to the ground with more or less abruptness according to the spirit and mood of those on the lever. Down at the old Eastham place there was a shingle mill up in the loft of the barn. Many a walnut "bolt" I have seen them saw into the finest shingles that were ever nailed on to a building. Albert Eastham established a syrup plant just across the road from the old Baptist church. Mrs. Eastham was Miss Mary Love, sister of Deacon Lewis Love. She spent the declining years of her life at Medora and there died. Of the children there were Susan, Eliza, Nancy, Jane, Isaac, Lewis and Allan. As has been mentioned elsewhere, Susan married John Derr; Eliza became the wife of Andrew Farrow ; and Nancy married Dr. Joseph Hunter. Jane died early in life. Isaac married Miss Minnie Chapin and Allan married Emeline Loper. In the Eastham family resided the Prosser girls. Louisa married Mr. Ward, who resided near Brighton; Susan married John Hart, also a resident of Brighton. Just north of the "Point" stood the home of George Eastham, whose daughter Emily married Thomas Wheat, a nephew of the Summerville blacksmith.

Lewis L. Love was a deacon in the Summerville Baptist church. He was a true southern gentleman and was imbued with the fine instincts of chivalry which mark a true gentleman from the south. His wife was Emily Eastham and the family consisted of Virginia, who married James R. Glenn. The next daughter was Betty, the first woman I ever heard play an organ and sing to her own accompaniment. The next daughter was Minnie, and the youngest, Emma. There were four boys: John, Julius, Bailey and Bird.

Elder Chilton An Exhorter

In those old days before the war there were three men who stand out most vividly in my mind because of the fact that they were so prominently in the public eye at that time. In those days the man of God was revered for his office, and, if he had the right qualities, and most of them did, he was beloved for himself. The three men alluded to above were Elder Jacob Rhoads, the nestor of them all, Elder Albert Farrow and Elder Hezekiah Chilton. Elder Chilton and family lived just west of the cross roads north of Rhoads' Point. I am not quite sure about it, but I think he was the first minister I ever heard preach a sermon. It was at the time of the Morton revival in 1865 that he comes to my mind most vividly in his work in the church. While Rev. Morton did the

Elder Chilton had come from the south many years before the war and was linked up with southern families both by marriage and kinship, hence it was the most natural thing in the world that his sympathies should have gone out to the south when the war came on. Yet, as pastor of a mixed flock, he endeavored to steer clear of all difficulties growing out of differences in politics and to preach just as earnestly among the northern sympathizers as among his own people. He had an appointment at the Delaware schoolhouse, which he was in the habit of meeting once a month. Politics was running high and the feeling was growing stronger and stronger all the time against those who were sympathizing with the south.

One Sunday afternoon my father and I started to walk down through the Coventry brush to the meeting. Somewhere along the Elm branch we met Orin Palmer in the little open prairie on the bank of the stream. He was in a remarkable state of excitement and from him we learned that a Union flag had been placed over the schoolhouse and if the Elder filled his appointment he would have to preach under the folds of the stars and stripes. We all three hastened back to the schoolhouse to see what would happen. We did not have long to wait. The day was bright and "old glory" was certainly deserving of the name as it floated in the afternoon breeze. Presently we espied the Elder coming along the road on horseback, up beyond Gaston Twitchell's place. Some thought he would face about as soon as he discovered the flag and saw the number of men who were there watching to see what he would do, but not he. He knew there was nothing to fear in the way of physical violence and had there been I am sure he was not the kind of a man who would have "turned tail and run." On he came till we could see his face. It was as white as a cloth, but we could not know whether it was anger or sorrow. He dismounted, tied his horse, and came boldly up to the crowd of men. If they expected him to fly into a passion of rage, they were doomed to disappointment. He extended his hand to them as usual, and not one refused it. Thus, they were disarmed at the start.

He went inside and the crowd followed him. The pallor did not leave his face and when he announced the hymn there was a palpable tremor in his voice. Then he prayed and such a prayer as it was ! I only wish that I had it verbatim to reproduce at this time. As he prayed, the men who had been his life-long neighbors and friends felt their love and sympathies go out to the man who stood by them, alone. Then came the sermon, which was simply a talk, in which he called them friends and in which he made very clear why his sympathies were with the south in the great struggle that was then in its fury. But he was so moderate in his language and so earnest in his statements that there was sorrow instead of anger in the hearts of all his listeners. He never referred in a single word to what might have been deemed an insult in the matter of placing the flag where he would have to preach under it. Then came the benediction, which was delivered amidst sobs that almost precluded the speech. He then said, "This will be my last appearance here to hold divine service, but I want to part with you as personal friends, no matter what may be our political differences." And then he shook hands with them all, myself included, mounted his horse and rode away.

Mrs. Chilton was Mary Eastham, a daughter of Lawson Eastham. Their eldest son was Robert. There were other children, as follows : Albert, Stephen, Warren, Betty, Susan, Fannie, Lanta and Maria.

The Parker Family

About three miles southeast of Medora is the old Parker homestead. Like all the pioneers of those early days, who settled in and around Rhoads' Point, the Parkers were southerners. Joel Parker was born and reared in the old Dominion but while yet a young man emigrated to Kentucky, where he met and married Miriam Haycraft. To this union, previous to 1835, four daughters were born : Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah and Frances. In that year the family came to Illinois and settled at this place. Shortly thereafter, the fifth daughter Palmyra, was born, and tradition has it that she was the first child born in Shipman township. Later on, a son, D. E.. and a daughter, Luvenia, were born. About this time the father died. And after ten years of widowhood Mrs. Parker was united in marriage with Henry Jolly, and to this union one daughter, Emma, was born. Mr. Jolly only lived a couple of years. Elizabeth married John L. Rhoads and for many years resided on the present John Wilton farm south of Medora, where she reared a large family of children. She is now residing in Medora, at the age of eighty-two. Mary married F. B. Simpson ; Sarah, W. J. Calverd; Frances, William Simpson; and Palmyra, J. L. Sherman. Luvenia became the wife of Thomas B. Forwood, and Emma Jolly married Oliver C. Forwood. As a widow, she later married H. W. Denny and now reL sides at Piasa. B. E. (Doc) Parker married Margaret Cain and resided on the old homestead for sixty years, where he reared a family of children. His home is now in Medora. It is remarkable that all of the Parker children are still alive and ranging in age from sixty-seven to eighty-two years.

Chari.Ks Wales And Family

The Wales family came into the county in an early day and settled two miles south of the "Point," where they had a highly cultivated farm. They purchased some of their land from the Blackburn Seminary, as it was then known, and through some transfer of interest, it is said they were compelled to pay for the land a second time. This was always deemed very unjust by the friends of the family, as I used to hear it discussed when I was a lad. Charles Wales was the head of the house. He had two sons, William and Edward, and three daughters, Abigail, who married Benjamin Roodhouse; Elizabeth, the wife of Marcus North ; and Harriet, who became the wife of William Hays.

The Salt Of The Earth

As I have frequently mentioned, the pioneers of Rhoads' Point, Summerville and Delaware sections of the county, were the very salt of the earth, and as I pass from one to another of them and the pages of their lives unfold before my gaze, recalling the incidents with which as a boy I was familiar, I am more and more convinced that but few sections of the county really had a finer, grander lot of pioneers, both men and women, than did this part of Macoupin. In many ways, Judge Thomas Rice stands preeminently in the fore front of the brave and noble men whom I knew in my boyhood days. He was a true southern gentleman. He was rather large, well built, with a full beard, which gave him, to me, a very patriarchial appearance. He was a man in whom the neighbors had unbounded confidences and even when the stress of the war was upon us we all felt that Judge Rice stood true and faithful to his old time friends and neighbors and that he was the real bulwark between us and northern sentiments and those bands of guerilla marauders which infested the country during the latter days of the war.

The Rices lived at the old homestead just south of the "Point." Away back before the war the postoffice was kept by Judge Rice. There were five boys: John, Washington, Stephen, Charles and George. It was during the war period that the boys concluded to put in a milling outfit and of course, a water supply was the first thing to be considered. So they sunk a great square hole in the ground, in the ravine just north of the Westbrook home and on the east side of the road. From some cause, it was abandoned, after it was sunk some forty or fifty feet deep and at quite a cost of labor and money. Later on, toward the close of the war, the boys sunk another square hole in the ground just south of the old Baptist church in what is now the north end of Medora, and evidently got what they were looking for, as in time a nice building was erected on the site and an excellent mill plant installed. Many a bushel of grain I have hauled to that mill, for our big force of hired men used to eat not a few biscuits in; those days. At first the people were a little afraid that the flour would not be O. K., but it was not long till the Rice boys had Rockbridge and Fidelity "skinned to death" when it came to good flour. There were five girls as well as five boys in the Rice family : Susan, who married John Cleaver ; Betty, who became the wife of Imri Vancil ; Jennie, who married Harry Westbrook ; Amanda, who married John Payne ; and Emma, who married Ferd Vanhorbeke.

Aaron Artman

Somewhere out west of Judge Rice's home, when I was a boy, lived the Artman family. I do not recall ever having seen any of them except the two boys, Aaron and Andrew. I remember when Andy Steed opened his harness shop about the year 1859 and when Aaron became an apprentice in the shop. Aaron went to the war and served with Colonel Palmer in Company C, Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry. He then returned home, completed his apprenticeship with Andy Steed and then opened a shop of his own. He married Henrietta Calverd and both are now sleeping the sleep of the just. In this connection it might be well to make some mention of Andrew Steed. He came to the "Point" before the war and I think he erected the first two-story building in the present business section of the place. I am sure it was the first painted building. It was somewhere just north of Loomis' drug store corner and was destroyed by fire a few years ago. After the railroad was completed Andy went into merchandising, which he continued until he retired from business. The name of the place was now changed to Medora, other business houses opened and things began to assume quite a metropolitan air. The postoffice was brought back from Summerville and Andy was appointed postmaster. During the war he served bravely in the Second Missouri Cavalry. After returning home, he married Celia Simpson.

Sweet Singers Of Medora

"Though we may forget the singer, we will not forget the song," so sang the minstrel long years ago, and it is true. Back there when I was a wee bit of a lad just old enough to trust to send up to the postoffice at Judge Rice's long enough before the war, there used to be a log cabin standing out in the woods just west of the road and south of the present Main street corner, that is across from Lax & Gruhn's store. I knew nothing of the family except that their name was Bell and that they were two "slashing, good looking" girls. I do not recall the name of either of them. I used to see a lot of them, for they came to our house, more or less, and I liked them the best in the world because they always made life brighter wherever they went with their gift of song. Of course they did not sing anything in the operatic line, but, like Peter of old, such as they had they gave, gave it so freely, willingly and sweetly, that it won its way into the pioneer hearts of those days much more readily than would have the Anvil Chorus, Lohengrin, Faust, or anything of the kind.

The Payne Family

If my memory serves me right, the Paynes were not among the original pioneers of Rhoads Point, though the family must have come there about the beginning of the war. I can remember when they did not live there, or at least, when there was no house where they afterward resided. I can remember when their building was erected and at the time it was thought to be a great acquisition to the village. It was the largest house in the place and was painted - a matter that always brought forth favorable comment in those days of log houses. Thomas Payne was the head of the family and met a tragic death. The children were : John : Elizabeth, who married David Hall ; and Sarah, who married Joseph Hall. Both were residents of the Keller schoolhotise neighborhood over north of the Macoupin creek.

In those far away days there were two families of Ulackburns living in the community : Dr. Blackburn, who resided near the bridge spanning the Macoupin, and which still bears his name; and two cousins, (ieorge and James, who were from the south and lived at the "Point." It is of this family that 1 am now writing. I have no personal remembrance of Dr. Blackburn.

There is a little stream running northwesterly through Medora out near where Allan Eastham used to live. In the old days there was a clearing and a small field extending from that brooklet in a wedge shape northerly to "Old Tobe's" store. South of the stream the timber spread out in a fringe from the road westward to the Mississippi river so far as 1 ever knew and right in the shadow of that fringe, about one hundred yards west of the main road, was a log cabin, which was occupied by the Blackburn people. George was married and had a daughter named Alice, who used to attend the Keller school in the old Baptist church. Jim Blackburn was a bachelor and a genial sort of fellow in a way. Both the boys were ardent southern sympathizers and common report during the war was that they were linked up in very close relationship with the bands of bushwhackers which infested Jersey and Macoupin counties. At least the whole family disappeared during those times and have never been seen about Medora since.

Another character of those days was Coonrod, the wagon maker. After part of the Perry family had gone away there came a man to the "Point" who did wagon making and the wood working end of the Perry shops. His name was Conrad Wickenhauser Coonrod, and a right good workman he was. He built for himself a tiny bit of a house just north of the building occupied by Andy Steed

Diversity Of Illinois

Just south of the old Baptist church stood a little store conducted in those early days by Tobias Barklow, commonly known far and wide as "Old Tobe." His store was surely not more than twelve feet square but it was packed with things such as the people of that day had need of. As I remarked, the store was only about a dozen feet square, and yet Tobe "lived and moved and had his being" in that store. He had a little stove back in the corner on which he did his cooking. There was a small hole in the ceiling, which led to a little chamber under the rafters. He had a ladder which he used as a means of reaching this room. He would draw it up after him and so slept securely from danger from burglars or other intruders. After a while Tobe disposed of his store and goods in some fashion and purchased a small farm north of the old Chism place and near Hodges' creek.

On the farm "Old Tobe" had as a neighbor a man by the name of Davis. In the days about the close of the war there was a big bridge across the Elm branch just south of the Luther Palmer place. One hazy, dreamy, sultry autumn day just in the midst of all the glory and beauty 'of Indian summer, I heard the rumble of a wagon coming down the hill. I look up and there I saw a sight never to be forgotten. Down that hill Bill Davis' ox team was coming, "licketysplit" with heads down and tails high in air, their speed accelerating at every revolution of the big hind wheels. I looked in vain for Bill and concluded that the oxen had gotten away from him, somewhere along the road from Alton, where I knew he had been with a load of wheat, as I had seen him go down a day or so before. But the fact was that the "sultry summer sun" had been too drowsy for him and he had gone to sleep in the bottom of the wagon and was letting the oxen do their own driving. They were doing it now with a vengeance.

Just before the outfit reached the bridge Davis drew his drowsy length up, getting as far along in the process as his knees just when the forward wheel struck the incline to the bridge. The reader can guess what happened. The front end of the wagon seemed to spring ten feet into the air and Bill shot up like a "jack in the box" so far that when he struck the bottom of the wagon again he was near the rear end of it. In the back of the wagon was a brand new cookstove and when the hind wheel struck the incline, up went the wagon again, and up, up, went the stove, and on went the oxen, and with them the wagon, of course. When the stove came down out of the clouds (of dust) there was no wagon in sight and the stove was spread all over the bridge in pieces about a foot in size. Davis never came back after it at all.

The Village Blacksmith

Out in the open, a little to the northeast of "Old Tobe's" store, stood the first Mt. Pleasant Baptist church building. It was really nothing more than a cheap wooden structure and I am sure that no paint ever adorned a single square foot of its weather-boarding. And just around the corner to the east and north of the church stood the residence of James Perry. He was the "village blacksmith," and one of his sons conducted a wagon making shop in connection therewith. In a little addition built on to the north end of his residence two more of the boys had a harness shop. Those were the days when the wagon maker "got out" most of his own material. They used to have a big "frame saw," with which they sawed out felloes, hounds and all other curved stuff. They used in those days steam seasoned oak and hickory for wagon material and of a real hot day it was a "man killer" to get out a set of felloes for a wheel. The names of the two Perry boys who conducted the harness shop were John and Andy. The whole family, about the breaking out of the Civil war, went over to Carrollton. The younger boy was named "Bun." The next thing I heard of him after the family went to Carollton was that he had enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry to do guard duty at Alton. That was the same regiment of which Rotheus Hayward was a member, and like him, "Bun" died of measles shortly after he was mustered in.

Not far away from Perry's shop was a house occupied by "Doc" Simpson and family. In the early days before the postoffice passed into the hands of Judge Rice, it was kept by Mr. Simpson. One time I went to Medora and as I missed his familiar figure on the street, I made inquiries and they told me he had joined that innumerable host over on the other shore. There were three daughters: Celia, Hattie and Nellie; and one son, Dick. Celia married Andy Steed.

Medora'S Boniface

After the railroad was completed through Medora in 1869, there was a field for a hotel, and William Simpson opened one in a large building, which he erected on the south side of the street leading to the depot and about opposite the present Loper store. Mrs. Simpson was one of the famous Parker sisters, of whom I have mentioned. Becoming a widow, she is now the wife of Rev. John W. Rice. The children of William Simpson consisted of three boys, Gideon, James and William, by his first wife. The children by the second marriage were Reuben, Stella and Lucella.

John Simpson, in the early days, lived in a little cabin that was on the comer just north and west of the present residence of Francis Metcalf. Later on he moved over to Summerville and lived in a little house next to the residence of the "parish pedagogue," Stroud Keller. The family then consisted of the parents and two boys, William and Chester. Near the close of the war John got the contract for carrying the mail from Brighton to Greenfield. Of course that was before the days of the railroad. Mrs. Simpson was Lottie Sherman, daughter of Barney Sherman, and sister of Lem Sherman, so well known in Summerville some forty years ago. She was a dear good woman, and a model mother.

To the east of "Doc" Simpson's and out in the field a short distance, was the house in which lived "Jack" Calverd and family, consisting of the father, mother, "Billie" and Henrietta. Mrs. Calverd was another member of the

The Chism Family

1 do not recall when John Chism and family did not live at the present homestead north of Medora, for, without doubt, they were there before I was born. John Chism was the son of William Chism and the family originally came from Kentucky to Illinois in 1829 and settled on the "old place" in 1848. In 1844 John and Ellen Skeen were united in marriage and settled on a farm west of Chesterfield, now known as the John Dews farm, where they remained four years and then on the Chism homestead north of Medora in 1848. He was a sturdy, heavy built man, with muscles of iron and was always in the best of health. It was never too early for him to be out in the field at work and never too late if the busy season was on. In those early days there wa3 great competition between three men as to who should be first in the field all work in the morning. They were John Chism, Lawrence Johnson and Luther Palmer, my father. Of the children, I remember William and James and the two older girls, Adelaide and Celia.

South of Summerville about half way to Piasa, there stood a little cabin, or "shack," and in it resided Tom Overton. The place was known far and wide because of the fact that the thirsty wayfarer could always get a "wee dhrap fer to wet 'is wissel," on the sly ; that is what people used to allege and I always thought they knew, some of them, from personal experience. Tom was always in the meshes of the law and his oft repeated slogan "there's law till Cairlinveele," either in jest or greater seriousness, men who had a grievance of any kind, real or fancied, would console themselves with Tom's slogan, "there's law till Cairlinveele." I think that eventually the Overton "blind pig" was fenced out. At least, the family moved away in early war days.

The Rhoads Family

The patriarch of the Rhoads family was Elder Jacob Rhoads, familiarly called "Uncle Jakey." Of the Swaffords I recall nothing, except that one of the women of the family married Leonard Trabue about war times.

Between Summerville and Piasa and southeast of the "Point" lived Benjamin Rhoads and family, as far back as I can remember. He kept quite a stock of patent medicines that were popular in those days, such as cologogue, chenoidon, I am not vouching for the right spelling, but I can vouch for its abominable odor and taste; Fahnestock's vermifuge, Landreth's pills, Perry Davis' pain killer, Whitfield's ague cure, etc., etc. aclnauseum. That was before the day of sugar-coated pills. All the medicine of those days was most horrid stuff to take. It seems to me now that the chief virtues of materia

South of Summerville about a mile lived William Rhoads. He was a hustling, busy man of affairs, and a good farmer. He was married four times, I think, and raised quite a large family.

A mile or more west of the Luther Palmer home, over on the Kemper road, lived John G. Rhoads. There were several other members of the Rhoads family. I only recall the names Doran, Worthum, Edward, Newton and Charles. Emily, daughter of William Rhoads. married William Brewer.

The Loper Family

The Loper family is certainly one of the old school. I presume the stock originated back among the Pennsylvania Germans. As far back as I can remember, George and Sarah Loper, and a house full of children were living at the old homestead in Summerville. Some nine or ten children grew to maturity. George Loper was energetic and prospered in material affairs, accordingly. His wheat stacks were the largest, his corn yield the greatest and his stock the fattest of anybody's in the community. He could neither read nor write but it used to be said that he could transact and keep track of more business in his head than most men could in a dozen day books. I remember to have seen him at Alton one time about the beginning of the war, delivering hogs to a slaughter house. They were killing the hogs and weighing them one at a time, just before they slaughtered them. The weights were called out and the oldest boy, John T., stood there entering the numbers in the book. When the weight of the last hog, was called out, Mr. Loper announced the total weight, but John T. had the long column to add up before he was able to give the total. The oldest girl, Lucinda, married William Brewer before the war. John T. died when a young man. The other boys were Melvin, Emmons and Thaddeus.

Summerville'S First Settler

Without doubt, Lester Hoisington was the first settler within the precincts of Summerville. He was my mother's half brother, and was married to my father's sister Roxanna. After moving to Montgomery county, he prospered and reared a large family of children.

Another Pioneer Summervill1Ax

As far back as my memory carries me, the Kenworthy family lived at the southeast corner in Summerville. They were sturdy, English people. The head of the house was, Edward Kenworthy, and there were three girls, Lizzie, Ellen and Etta. In time Lizzie became the wife of Martin Haynes. Ellen married John Richardson. Edward finally died and the widow became the wife

The Village Dominie

I do not remember the time when Stroucl V. Keller did not live in the little cottage just across the road east of -George Loper's, and "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary," as he used to be so fond of quoting, when he was not the teacher in the Summerville school. Mrs. Keller was the daughter of Elder Jacob V. Rhoads. I remember Stroud Keller as a schoolteacher, a shorthand teacher, a writing teacher, a lawyer, a preacher, a justice of the peace, a political speaker, a candidate for county clerk, a newspaper correspondent, in fact, a general, all-around good fellow, worthy citizen, active partisan, able debater and an earnest exhorter to righteousness. As it was, I am sure there was never a district schoolteacher in Macoupin county, no, nor in the whole state of Illinois, who could touch the hem of his blue jeans coat. He was unique and effective in his methods ; he was sui generis - he trotted in a class all by himself - in his summary dealings with the lazy and refractory. Under these circumstances, he would rather whip a boy than eat his dinner. I have seen him remain at noon to lick a boy, while his dinner was getting cold at home. One of the "old boys" wrote that Stroud never whipped a boy while he was angry ; no, I am sure he did not, for there was such supreme happiness in his soul the moment he grabbed the hazel rod in his hand that all his anger was instantly transmitted into ecstacies of delight. When I first started to school, there was a quarter of an acre of splendid hazel brush growing wild just back of the schoolhouse. What wonderful astute acumen that old time board of trustees displayed in locating the schoolhouse on that particular site; especially with Stroud Keller as prospective teacher. I can remember even now just how it felt when Stroud would send a fellow out to get a rod for his own castigation. That was not what Stroud called it, but it was a case where a licking hurt just as badly by any other name. Long years before I was through the grammar grade Stroud had exhausted the supply of hazel brush in that patch.

With the boys of Company C, One Hundred and Thirty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Stroud Keller marched away to Rock Island and served his country for one hundred days, guarding prisoners. He was a good teacher and the uniformly high grade of men and women who grew up in that neighborhood and have gone out to all points of the compass was made possible only through the early training of this same man, Stroud V. Keller.

The Village Plow Maker

Who that lived within forty miles of Summerville in those old days did not know "Boss" Wheat. If he had any "front" name I do not .remember ever to have heard it. Wheat lived in a modest little cottage just across the road and a little north of George Loper's house, and north of his house was the blacksmith shop. He was master of his trade and was well named, for he certainly was a "boss workman." He was a man who knew how to do things. He was not only a natural mechanic, but a real genius as well. He made a specialty of a twohorse plow, with a high wooden stock, nearly straight beam, long pointed shire and long curling mold board. His only competitor in those days was the Moline plow, which had a low mold board, with the "dish" in it turned the wrong way, and it would not "scour" if it were paid for it. But the Wheat plow would lie awake of nights, so to speak, to scour. The Wheat plow was a general favorite with most farmers, though of course, some preferred the Moline. I am sure, however, that "Boss" Wheat's best product was the "double plows" he used to make way back fifty years ago. They were used for the cultivation of corn and were great labor savers, as one man could easily do two men's work with them. They were so adjusted by a double set of cross bars that the plows would throw the dirt from the younger corn, then by reversing the plows, throw the dirt up to the hill at "laying-by" time. And then there were harrows, coulters and a host of other things he could make. I have seen him temper steel till it was as hard as glass and as tough as the best Bessemer of today. He finally passed to the beyond and his widow married John Wilson, and moved' up near Carlinville, just west of Hurricane creek. Of the children there were Charles, Wesley, George, Samuel and Hannah.

John Roach

Just north of "Boss" Wheat's smithy, on the east side of the street stood a cottage occupied by John Roach. If my memory serves me rightly, John Roach conducted the Summerville store with John Farrow. Mrs. Roach was a sister of Joseph and David Hall and she was the mother of a large family of children. The boys were David, Thomas, Henry and John ; and the girls, Adelaide, Lucy, Alma, Jennie and Betty. Adelaide married young Mr. Beebe, south of Medora.

Edward Corey

Across the street and north from the Roach store was the home of Edward F. Corey. He was a brother of Mrs. Hartwell-Loomis and Mrs. Corey was a Miss Deacon. One winter her two brothers, Henry and Ira, lived with the Coreys and went to school. Edward Corey one winter taught in the old schoolhouse.

Enoch Keele

East of the store in Summerville, and back from the road to the south in the heart of a great orchard, lived Enoch Keele and family as early as I can remember. Mrs. Keele was Miss Margaret Loper. Her daughter Lucetta married Stephen Rice, and Mary became the wife of John Barnstable, now of Medora. The only boy was Alonzo. The family subsequently moved over east of Chesterfield, while I was still in the district school.

Elfreth Johnson

As noted heretofore there were people from almost every section of the east and south among the pioneer settlers of this section of the county. El-

- And so the people acting along the lines suggested in the song literally came from every nation and every way. In those days, more so than now, the settler from Jersey was a marked man wherever he went. The flavor of the sea marsh, called by them salt meadows, was always present with them, and the tales they told of big mosquitoes and tall "sparrow grass" (asparagus) made them marked people. And old Mr. Johnson was no exception to the rule. He seems to have come into the country in an early day, for my father mentions him as residing on "Jersey street" as far back as 1843. As long as I can remember, he lived in the eastern end of the double house which stood up in the -field directly west of the old Harmony schoolhouse. Mr. Johnson was an inveterate Mason and always wore a "plug" hat when he went to lodge.

Lawrence Johnson

Among the most active of the men of the neighborhood in those early days, Lawrence Johnson stands in the fore front. His wife was Amanda Pruitt, a member of that well known pioneer family, most of whom lived farther west. During the war Lawrence and his good wife were stanch Unionists and any one who wore the blue found a hearty welcome at their home. I well remember the occasion of Leonard Ketchum's and Jane Hayward's marriage. A number of the boys of Company F, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry were home on furlough just at that time. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson embraced the occasion of the wedding to give the couple an "infare" and at the same time give the other soldier boys a dinner. Those who were present on this occasion were the bride and groom ; Daniel, David and Edward Ketchum, Arthur and Mary Hartwell, Samuel Garrett, Cyrus Hayward, Jr., Charles Hebron, Henry George, Wallace Clark, Sarah Bister, Rebecca Ketchum, Daniel Palmer and family, William Armstrong, of Alton, Mrs. Thomas Ruyle, William and James Chism, Polly Ann Barnard, Elfreth and Mrs. Johnson, Thomas Lambert and wife, Smith Pruitt and Lyman L. Palmer. To me, a soldier was next to divine, and as Wallace Clark displayed his old gray campaign hat, with a real rebel bullet hole through it, it seemed to me that he was next to General Grant himself. And then Dave Ketchum, the genuine hero of the neighborhood, who had stood "on the heights of Shiloh" and had a real rebel bullet hole through his arm! I recall that Henry George related how the fellows in the very next tent to his at the time the rebels captured Harper's Ferry were blown to atoms by a shell which dropped between them. Then he told how he had put his saddle on wrong end to and had ridden to safety, with one boot on and the other in his hand. And] so the day went by and it was the grandest day of my life.

The Halcyon Days Of Youth

In the early days the road meandered northeasterly across the open prairie north of our house till it came to a lane which was between the farms of Lawrence Johnson and Robert Fitzjarrell. At the north end of this lane and a quarter of a mile east of the present home of Leonard Ketchum, on the south side of the present road from Kemper to Challacombe, was the home of the Fitzjarrells. Strange as it may seem, these are men whom I knew in the real "halcyon days of youth," before I was four years of age. As far back as I can remember and on through my boyhood days there lived in the community Robert, William and Daniel Fitzjarrell. And they were always spoken of as "Bob," "Bill" and "Dan Jerels." They had one sister, Phoebe Ketchum-Cooper. The Baptist year book is my authority for spelling the name as I have it in this article. Robert Fitzjarrell lived in a little log house and owned eighty acres, lying east of the lane. It is now the property of James Chism. After the war he sold his farm to Lawrence Johnson and moved over to Greene county. Rev. Carey Fitzjarrell, a son, is a minister of the Baptist denomination. William Fitzjarrell lived down a little lane just east of Eli Palmer's house. iWhen William moved away I do not know, and my memory regarding Daniel is just as frail.

The Ketchum Family

Ira Ketchum was a son of my grandfather's sister, Rebecca, and his wife was Phoebe Fitzjarrell. Some years after the death of her husband, she married Henry Cooper, and one son, Eli, was born to this union. By her marriage with Ira Ketchum, there were nine children: Alfred, Leonard, Daniel, David, Edward, Frank, Rebecca, Charles and Ira. Alfred married a daughter of David Hartwell. Leonard enlisted in Company F, Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, and married Jane Hayward. Daniel married Irene Thurston, and during the war served in the Thirty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry. David also enlisted in Colonel John Logan's regiment, the Thirty-second, which was recruited largely in Macoupin county, and was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. and died soon after a furlough home and re-enlistment. Edward Ketchum entered the army, enlisting in the One Hundred and Thirty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He afterward married Jennie Haynes. Of the other children there was one girl, Rebecca, who married James Chism, and raised a large family of children.

A Hard Nut To Crack

Xow, here is about as hard a nut to crack as ever a biographer ran across. To tell the exact truth about John Coventry will be to do his memory an injustice, and yet the reader cannot get an adequate conception of his erratic

University Of Illinois

Away back in the days when deer and Indians held full sway over all the Illinois prairies, a lone white man built his fire and broiled his venison, one night on the site of the now beautiful city, Jacksonville. So far as he knew, there was not another white man within a hundred miles of him. That man was John Coventry. Whither he traveled after that or how he came at last to drift into this community and settle on the land he held so long, adjoining the present town site of Kemper on the southeast, is more than I ever Knew.

I cannot remember when "old Coventry" did not reside in the little dingy house, which was surrounded by acres and acres of apple trees. He must have been actuated by the same motive which governed "Johnnie Appleseed," the great orchard planting, Ohio pioneer. The Coventry orchard was certainly the most extensive, if not the earliest planted in that whole section. He was erratic. For long years he had lived alone in the wilderness, hence, he did not take kindly to the people, as the encroachment of settlement brought his neighbors closer and closer to him. That he not only hoarded his gold but buried it about his premises, was demonstrated at the time the guerrillas made their raid on him and compelled him to exhume his buried treasures for them.

In his dress and living he was not only simple and economic but often unique and original. His clothing often comprised merely grain sacks, fastened about his limbs and body with hickory withes. He was the first man in the community to use the new, popular whole-wheat floor. He antedated Dr. James Jackson in his home on the hillside at Danville, New York. He had an old coffee mill in which he ground the wheat and made biscuit out of the product.

When the boys of Company F, Twelfth Cavalry were enlisting he liberally dug up a ten dollar gold piece for each of them, and thus he displayed a far greater spirit of patriotism than he was ever given credit for, as it must have meant much for him to part with two or three hundred dollars in gold in one day. I suspect that while he was digging in the trenches to find his buried treasure for the bushwhackers, he wished that he had given it all to the boys in blue. Eventually he moved to a little house in the east end of Summerville, where he died.

The Silsbys

The Silsby family, as a whole, is associated in my mind with the John Coventry place. During those years whert the Haywards and Silsbys lived together, Ansel Hayward kept busy at carpentry about the neighborhood and Frank Silsby conducted the farm. After the death of Ansel Hayward and his wife, the Silsbys rented the Coventry place. This was during the war. The family then consisted of "Grandma" Silsby and her two boys, Frank and Albartus. The oldest Silsby boy was Wilson but long before I can remember, he had married Jane Derr and moved out of the community. Losing his wife, Wilson afterward married Fannie Chilton. Frank married Rebecca Palmer and with her lived for some time on a farm west of Carlinville. Rebecca's death was sudden and untimely but in the course of time Frank married Mrs. Caroline Garrett, the widowed daughter of his old time friend and neighbor, Cyrus Hay- ward. Albartus enlisted in the Twelfth Illinois Cavalry, becoming a inejnber of Company F and went to the front. His constitution was frail and he soon gave up his young life to the cause.

A Disciple Of Henry Clay

It is probable that no individual family in the whole neighborhood has made and left a more lasting impress upon the community than has the Kemper family. In most of the other cases, the families were in groups, as the Carsons, Haynes, Haywards and others, but here is a family that stands alone. Single handed, they came up somewhere from the southland. I always thought from Kentucky, into that section of Illinois in those far away pioneer days. During the campaign of 1860 W. H. H. Kemper, being a Kentuckian, was naturally a disciple of Henry Clay, hence, a whig, and, as I now recall, a relative of the then famous Colliers of Kentucky. Mr. Kemper was perforce an ardent supporter of the Bell-Everett ticket. And so, in his enthusiasm, Mr. Kemper placed a big bell on the end of a fifteen or twenty foot pole and planted it in the ground beside his front gate. When he would see any of his neighbors going by he would run out and shout, "Hurrah for Bell and Everett" and begin to shake the pole vigorously. The big bell at the top would join in the huzza in no uncertain accents. The other members of this family were Mrs. Kemper and her children, Georgiana, Kittie, Mary, Lucy, Laura, Poly, Thomas, Henry, Zachariah and William. To these should be added Peachy, who I think died young, and Allie and Tina. The latter married Charles Dannells. Georgiana Kemper married William Haven of String Prairie, and Kittie married Gideon Carson. Mary Kemper became the wife of Orin Palmer, and Lucy married Joseph Carter. Charles Ruyle secured the heart and hand of Laura. Xapoleon and Thomas Kemper enlisted in Company F. Twelfth Illinois Cavalry. Shortly after the battle at Gettysburg the ladies of the local Union League sent a letter of congratulation and encouragement to the brave boys of Company F. and it was Napoleon (Poly) Kemper who replied to it. This letter was dated: "In Camp on Cedar Run, August 19, 1863." Within a month from the writing of this letter both boys were wounded unto death while on skirmish duty. Sad was the day when the swift wings of the lightning brought to us the direful message that the two Kemper boys had been wounded and that "Poly" was dead. How shocked the whole community was ! And every family in it mourned almost as it would have done had a member of its own household been taken. After "Poly's" death Tom was removed to the hospital at Alexandria, Virginia, where the best of care was afforded him and improved rapidly for about a month then a turn for the worst rapidly developed and almost without warning he had gone to join his brother in that sleep which knows no waking. During the winter of 1863-4 Henry Kemper, with a man by the name of Joseph Hooper, James Simpson and Dr. N. Jayne and family, struck out for California. He subsequently returned and married Melissa, daughter of James Haycraft. Zach Kemper became the operator and agent

There Were Many Palmers

The first of the Palmer family to emigrate to Illinois was the youngest of them, William, who with his family arrived in Greene county in 1830. He was born June 20, 1799, at Sudbury, Addison county, Vermont. William Palmer married Mary Barton back in Vermont in 1823. In the fall of 1832 he and his family moved into the domain of what has since been known as Palmer's Prairie. Down in the vicinity of Rockbridge on the south side of Macoupin creek was a section which was known at that time as "Gopher Hole." Some time before this George Loper's father had settled there. He set out the first peach trees that were ever in that section, on that place. A man by the name of Jack Stubbins owned the farm when the Palmers came into the neighborhood and from him William purchased the place, and made it his home for a year or so. He constructed the first bridge across the Macoupin at Rockbridge. A man by the name of Teegard owned and conducted the water power grist mill there at that time.

A couple of years later William erected a double log house just across the road east of the present Delaware schoolhouse, in which he and the family resided a number of years. Early in 1845 he began the erection of the house which still stands to the south of the Delaware schoolhouse. It was while getting out the rock for this house in February, 1845, that an accident occurred by which he almost entirely lost his eyesight. Tlje eldest child of William and Mary Barton Palmer was William George, who was a resident of Kemper at the time of his death, which occurred January 16, 1911. He was born November 4, 1823, in Addison county, Vermont, and came to Illinois in 1830 with his parents. The second son of William and Mary Palmer was Henry Robley. He was born in August, 1833, and died November i, 1891. There were three daughters born to William and Mary Palmer : Mary, Harriet and Martha. Mary married John Dannell; Harriet became the wife of Milo Stowe, and died in 1888; Martha never married and is still living. The second one of the Palmer brothers who emigrated to Illinois was Elias, who was born in Sudbury, Vermont, in 1797. He married Thirza Stowe. They came to Illinois in 1836 and settled a short time after their arrived on the site of the present home of Vilas Dodge, a mile or so northwest of Kemper. The whole family remained as guests of William and family during the time the new house was being erected. Elias died February 23, 1863, and his wife, Thirza, died June 15, 1858. Their children were: Sarah Ann. Elias, Olive, Orin, Rebecca, Abigail and Dennis. The eldest son of Elias was Elias. Jr. He was born in 1826 and came to Illinois with his parents in 1836. He married Lovena, a sister of Luther Palmer. The second son of Elias and Thirza Palmer was Orin. who was born in Addison county, Vermont, in 1832, and came to Illinois with his parents. He married' Mary E. Kemper in 1858 and to them were born three children : Ida, Mignon and Elmer. The two younger daughters of Elias and Thirza Palmer were Olive and Rebecca. Olive never married and is making her home in Kemper. Re- becca married Frank Silsby, as heretofore mentioned. Daniel Cunningham Palmer was the last of the Palmer brothers to come to Illinois. He was born in 1785 and grew up in Vermont, and while still a young man married Roxanna Welch. He served a short time in the war of 1812. In 1816 he emigrated to Knox county, Ohio. He was the father of Luther Palmer, sire of the writer of this article.

During the month of November, 1843, Daniel Cunningham and family set out in a covered wagon to make the long journey from Ohio to Illinois. They arrived at Delaware, or "Jersey," as it was most generally called, by all the Yankee emigrants and their relatives back east, during the month of December, 1843. The family took up their abode with William Palmer, but did not remain there long, however, for a log house was speedily constructed west of William's place, a half mile or more, in which the family soon made their home. It was while sinking a well on this place that a very unusual thing occurred. Some twenty feet or more deep in all that section of Illinois, there is an underlying strata known as "hard pan." It is a conglomeration and is about as hard as rock itself. In the midst of this bed of hard pan the workmen came upon a frog snugly nestled in a little narrow space. He was seemingly as dead as anything in this world and so they laid him on a rock expecting to take him to the house as a great curiosity when they went to dinner. But, lo ! what was their surprise when they went to look for the frog to find that it had come to life under the revivifying influences of the midday sun and hopped off into the brush and was forever lost to them. I saw the exact counterpart of that in Chicago a few years ago when they were driving a great water main ninety feet below the surface. There a frog was found imbedded in the solid limestone. I saw him and he was alive.

In 1846 Daniel Palmer and his family moved to a farm east of Carlinville, in what was then known as the Corr neighborhood, or more generally, as Honey Point. While living there and during the fall of the year, a daughter, Wealthy Lucinda, died. This practically broke up the home and he moved back to Jersey county. He soon thereafter died at the home of his grandson, William, in 1847, at tne a£e of sixty-one years and lies buried in the Palmer graveyard. The children of Daniel Cunningham Palmer were : William, David, Sarah, Roxanna, Abigail, Daniel David, Lydia, Luther Bateman, Wealthy Lucinda, Lovena and Loretta.

The only daughter of William Palmer, the New Yorker, and Abigail Cunningham, the Quakeress, who resided in Illinois, was Rebecca. She was born in 1794 and at about the close of the war of 1812 was married to Ira Ketchum. The fruit of this union was one son, Ira, who, with his mother, came to Illinois with her brother William in 1830. Later on when William moved into the Rockbridge section, they came with him. Ira married Phoebe Fitzjarrell, from .which union sprang the large family of Ketchums. He died in 1853 at the age of fifty-seven

Martha J. Larew, daughter of William and Elizabeth Larew, with her younger brother arid sister were left orphans at an early age and made their home with their uncle, Johnson Dannels, until grown. While in school at Chesterfield she united with the Congregational church in 1861 and afterwards be- came one of the charter members of the Delaware Congregational church. She was married in 1862 to Jacob Hoffnagle, who died in 1864. In 1868 she was united in marriage to Dennis Palmer, who died in 1893. To this union were born four children: Stella, wife of Percy Cookson; Earl L., Ernest D. and Harriet Elizabeth. She died December 20, 1910, at the residence of her son-inlaw, Percy Cookson, at Carlinville, and was buried at Kemper, in the Delaware cemetery.

Luther Bateman Palmer

Luther Bateman Palmer was my father and was born in Knox county, Ohio, in 1826. He was seventeen years of age when the family landed in Illinois, where he grew to manhood and lived for many years. The entire time that he ever attended school did not exceed six weeks, but he was not handicapped very much on that account. He was perfect master of the three R's and could read and 'rite and cipher with the best of them. In fact, I am sure there have been but few men in all that whole section who excelled him in reading and 'rithmetic, and as for 'riting, his letters to me now, at the age of eighty-five, are marvels of composition in every respect.

It was not long until he set out to do business on his own account, working by the month for Benjamin Sanders, and for the whole of a year he was paid the stupendous sum of $120. Strange to say, out of this small wage, he was able to save enough to make the first payment on his half of the quarter section which he and his brother Daniel bought, lying south of the old house, and so it was that he got his start in life.

In 1846 he farmed the Samuel D. Brainerd place, just at the turn of the road north of L. B. Palmer's house, and evidently cultivated the acquaintance of the eldest daughter, as well as the corn crop he had in, for we find it recorded that he and Louisa A. Brainerd were married on the 29th day of October, the year following. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. Elihu Palmer, a brother of the late Senator John M. Palmer. Once I had occasion to go down from Chicago to Springfield to get a letter of introduction from General Palmer and he began it thus : "Dear Sir : - This will introduce to you Mr. Lyman L. Palmer, whose father I have known for the past fifty years."

My mother died in 1853 ar)d a year later father paid a visit to his old home in Ohio and there met and married Anna Rebecca Smith. To this union there were born six children : Vesta, Clarence, Walter, Lucius, Annie and Sabin.